Sophia's Chronicles

A/N:

How's it going, y'all? Hope you're well. Just so you know, I always keep writing so I have several chapters already written after this one, waiting to be edited before I finally post them. Can't wait for you guys to see what I have in store. And I have to mention this, just cause, that season 13 feels so fresh compared to season 12 and I hope it goes in a good direction. And when I watched the most recent episode (no significant spoilers, not to worry), I was just freaking out because OHMYGAWD that's exactly how I imagined The Void to look like! (I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about). And that… other… character has mannerisms similar to what I imagined Khaos to have. That's so cool. At least now I can describe a visual that you guys can envision as well. (thanks spn writers?) Hope you guys didn't miss dear Sophie too much but if you did, this is the chapter for you.

Chapter 58: Ending Is The Beginning

(Sophia POV)

The Void – Unknown time

"You! Man the cannons!" I yelled. Another archangel with my face complied. There was only green light. The green from our eyes. It glinted off the obsidian swords we wielded. "Attack!" I commanded. At once, we flew forward, swinging the swords we held with both hands because one sword per archangel would not be enough. The beings spontaneously spawned from the ground, rising in a gooey form before taking on a more precise figure. They all looked like clones of Zorg, that robotic thing that stood guard outside my house until the day when everything changed for me. The house. It was just an image in my head, like a picture in a book. Something that possibly existed but now I wasn't sure. You see, existence means something entirely different in the Void. Thousands of universes lay outside these indistinguishable walls. Thousands of possibilities. What's real for me was not real for another version of me. What I had and what she had and what they had were all different. So what truly belonged to this entity named Sophia? Every day the answer became less and less clear.

Today we fought as one. As one Sophia. All it took was the push of one button. Surprising how something so simple could spark something so catastrophic as a rebellion. But I suppose that was always Khaos' way. That was His charm. And now He would face a demise of His own creation. If He wanted Sophia so bad, He would get it. The doors swung open at once in a rusty choir. "Sisters!" I'd called out as they sauntered out one by one. It was like they couldn't quite believe it themselves. I saw it in their eyes – there was no hope, no life, no making sense of what had happened to them. "Our time is here. Now," I announced. Something changed in all of us in that moment. It didn't matter where we were from, what we were made of. Light or Dark or something in between – we marched forward. For a typically empty, lonely place, the Void seemed to have taken notice of our collective assembly soon enough. Then they came. From the walls, from the ground, from the ceiling – the defenders of the Void, these misshapen things spawned all around us and took form.

They seemed to outnumber us. They growled menacingly as a tense silence fell over the large open area we found ourselves in. "Open" being a loose term because there was only ever a kind of ambiguous darkness in the Void with an inexplicable sense of light illuminating the way even though there was no source of it. It was like the whole place couldn't decide whether it wanted to be seen or not. In any case, the walls were far apart. There we stood, huddling against each other as these things emerged. Some of them seemed to be trembling. It had probably been a while since they'd fought anything. Or maybe they'd been mistreated like I was, or worse. I couldn't imagine what they must have been through. I hoped I could find out from them if we survived this. If.

They had swords. We didn't. But we weren't programmed robots like them. We had everything they didn't. Anger, Hope, Love, Life. These things we held in our hearts while they simply did as they were made to – resist attack and defend the Void. I pumped my fist up in the air as I yelled and led the charge. My sisters echoed the war cry and followed me. Everything moved so fast I could barely keep up with who was killing what. Whoever we might have been before, none of it mattered now. Here we were all the same – merciless, ruthless, savage killers. No need for decency, no need for moral judgment. If it had shiny goo for skin, it had to die. It swung at me. I dodged and struck as hard as I could. I ripped off its helmet and smashed its head in with it. Something sticky coated my hands.

I took its sword, a long black thing with a hilt indistinguishable from its blade. Looked real pretty in a simple sort of way. Maybe I'd bring it home as a souvenir for Lucifer. Maybe that would ease his anger towards me, which I was sure he had. I felt a piece of me aching just knowing it. Survival first, Sophia! I spun and sliced at another one of them charging at me from behind and grabbed his sword too. A gift for my son, perhaps. My gaze hardened. With a grunt, I blocked a strike. There would be no future, no past, if I died here. There must only be the present. I wasn't Sophia, the archangel of wisdom, nor was I a mother, a lover or a fallen angel. I was the sword on my left hand and the sword on my right hand. Blood was my language and survival my armour.

As the last one of these Defenders fell, I looked around and saw all of my sisters standing with the exact same look in their eyes. I suppose it couldn't be any other way – we all had the same face, a fact that I'd gotten used to by now. Somehow all of their eyes found me. They looked to me for command. But who was I to command them? We were all equals. Archangels of comparable strength and the same desire to destroy the being who put us here. "What's next, Commander?" one of them asked.

And that's how I found myself where I was right now. This was just the beginning. We needed to destroy the various mechanisms Alpha had put in place to protect His realm. Khaos may be an unstoppable force of destruction in the universes but here, in the Void, He couldn't be. It was the one place where He had no choice but to be vulnerable. The Void was like a fortress He'd built to keep Himself warm at night after a day's work in other places. That meant that if the fortress came crumbling down, He would be easier to take down. The first thing we needed to destroy was the mainframe – the apparatus that allowed Him to see within the Void. It was as good as gouging one of His eyes out, assuming they could be gouged out.

Thanks to Omega, I knew where everything was. Where did the cannons come from, you ask? Apparently the internal defence mechanisms included heavy weaponry hidden in the walls. With a little help, we managed to short-wire the walls and take all the weapons we could. And of course, as we marched up to the obsidian wall where the mainframe was built, more Defenders came. This was war.


British Men of Letters Temporary HQ – 25 December 2011, God knows what time it is

Zara lay curled up in a ball on the bed, bathing in the red light in her room with her back against the wall. Her body ached from all the experiments, cramping up in odd places. Despite eating all the meals they gave her, she still felt weak. Her body just needed a lot of rest and she wasn't getting enough here. Today she'd actually woken up on her own, without anyone storming into her room and forcefully dragging her away. It felt nice to get enough sleep for once. But what could that mean? Were they planning something? This didn't sit right with her. Nothing ever could in this dark, lonely cell. Being confined in here all day long was a different kind of death. She was left with nothing but her thoughts. It was driving her insane. Sometimes she wanted nothing but to claw her brains out. Sometimes she just yelled into her pillow. Either way, she'd run out of tears to cry. Maybe this was how Lucifer felt in the Cage. She shook her head. There was no way she could understand what Lucifer had been through. All she knew was what she saw when Sophia was in her head. Sophia's memories, floating around in that space that they shared. It was hard to focus on any one of them for too long but Zara was just amazed that she could experience any of them at all. Why did Sophia let her see these things? Why did Sophia let her feel so… included? Like she belonged in the company of a celestial being? What a spoilt little thing she'd been. Never cherishing the freedom and affection she'd had when she still had it. For that, she deserved worse.

She's not coming back. And you will live out the rest of your days in this room, a voice in the back of her head said. Her mind felt numb. No. Her lips pouted in defiance of her own pessimism. She took out the Doppler she'd kept under her pillow. Pressing the probe against her belly like the doctor had shown her, she turned on the device. A satisfied smile spread across her face as she heard the steady heartbeat coming through the speaker. She exhaled contentedly, keeping the speaker close to her face as she closed her eyes again. Comforted by the rhythm of her baby's living heart, she drifted back into sleep.

The door clicked open. Zara stirred awake, conditioned by the sound of the door to become conscious. As the large, bulky men waited by the door, she slowly got up and out of the room. "Sleep well?" Toni greeted her. Zara groaned internally upon seeing her. "Dr Berg talked to me about… your concerns." Uh oh. Was that a good or bad thing? "I guess we could take a break from sensory deprivation for now. We're going to be doing something different today. Merry Christmas, Zara."

Shit, it's Christmas? Zara would never have guessed. As they entered a room, she was immediately cuffed to a wall. Her hands were bound separately to the wall, meaning that they were spread out at a 45-degree angle away from her body on either side. The chains were short so she could move them to only a limited extent. After binding her, one man stood by the door while another opened up an opaque box on a table a few feet away from her. From it, he took out something – the only thing she had to remind her of life outside this concrete hell. Sophia's blade. Even from this distance, it glistened beautifully in the industrial lighting of the room.

"I'm sure you recognise what's in front of you," Toni's voice blared through a speaker in the wall. The Woman of Letters herself was behind a one-way mirror on the other end of the room, behind the table. "Now, various reports indicate that Sophia had telekinetic control over her blade. An ability that no other angel is known to have. The blade seems to only respond to her command. But will it obey yours?"

Fuck if I know. Zara had a bad feeling about this. None of the previous tasks Toni had her do with regards to telekinesis ever ended up well. She couldn't levitate objects; she couldn't shift them. She couldn't even make a dent on them.

"Try to summon it to your hand," Toni commanded.

"Toni…" Tom spoke up next to her. Being in the control room, their conversation would be contained within the four walls unless Toni had the speaker on. "I'm not sure this is a good idea."

"I'm onto something here, Tom," she argued. "Just give her time. She'll give us something."

Tom nodded passively as he watched from the control room. Zara concentrated really hard. But honestly, she didn't know what she was doing. I was promised instruction, dammit! Without anyone guiding her thoughts, how was she supposed to know what to do? All she could do now was wish really hard that the damn sword would move. And of course, it didn't work.

"Make it move, Zara," Toni ordered her with a slightly sterner voice.

Zara held her breath. Her arms stiffened in effort. A whimpering groan escaped her lips as she concentrated. She envisioned the blade moving and focussed on that image as single-mindedly as she could. She even closed her eyes. She tried so hard that her head was beginning to hurt.

"Do it!" Toni yelled, causing her to flinch. Zara's eyebrows creased deeply. But no matter how hard she thought at the blade, it just wouldn't budge. "I said, do it!"

"I can't!" Zara finally exclaimed, letting out a deep exhale. She panted heavily for breath.

"Try again!" Toni demanded. Zara shook her head, drained by the effort. She had the look of someone who'd given up on everything, someone who saw no hope in trying. Every day she spent here she was driven that much closer to the edge of sanity.

"I don't know what you want from me," she muttered under her breath, sinking to her knees as much as the cuffs binding her wrists would allow. Behind the glass screen, Tom unfolded his arms, unsettled by her state. This whole thing was a little unnerving for him – watching her slowly lose it from Day One till now. She came in strong and ready to fight anything and anyone in her way and now here she was, a withering mess in front of them. He didn't know how long this would have to go on.

"Get up and try harder, Zara," Toni instructed.

"Maybe we should let her rest," Tom suggested.

"She's rested enough," Toni dismissed. "All she does is sleep when she's in her room." Toni clicked a button on her keypad. In an instant, an electric jolt shot through Zara's body and she yelped. Horrified, she stared at the one-way mirror with widened eyes. "I won't ask again," Toni said through the speakers. "Get up and try again."

Zara's calves trembled as she summoned herself to a standing position. She suddenly became so conscious of the cuffs around her wrists. They must be connected to some wiring, she realised. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as she stared at the blade. Her fingers tightened in a clawing position as she willed with all she could muster. Still, nothing. She relaxed, exhaling in desperation. Then it came again. Another shock. This time, she yelled louder, caught by surprise. Nothing went through her mind except how anyone could have thought this was okay. It was painful, which was something new about what they were doing to her. Sure, being dumped into a tank of water was highly uncomfortable and traumatising, but this was actual torture. Without a choice, she tried her relentless pursuit of telekinesis again, to yet another null response.

Toni observed silently. Her arm reached out to press the button again but Tom caught her forearm mid-air. "What do you think you're doing?" he inquired, eyes nervously blinking.

"Administering a controlled shock," Toni replied.

"But she's pregnant. This is dangerous," he advised.

She gave him an indignant glare as she pulled her hand away from him. Picking up a folder on the table, she drew out a few articles and passed it to him. "This won't hurt the baby. I did my research."

"There's still a risk of cardiac arrhythmia or even… even abortion!" he argued.

"Only if the voltage is too high," she rebutted. "Thomas, I'm not a monster. I wouldn't do that. Not even to a crazy misanthropic bitch."

"Then stop this," he pleaded. "It's not right. She doesn't know how. Have you considered that maybe your hypothesis is wrong?"

"We can't jump to any conclusions yet," she stood her ground. "So far, she's done well only when pushed to a fight-or-flight state. It's just the same for this."

"You mean it could be the same. You can't even say that for sure," he said, begging her with his gaze to stop. "Toni, I know you want results. But we have to stop and think about whether we are trying to find answers where there aren't. And frankly, I'm concerned about your methods."

Toni narrowed her eyes at him, studying him like she was a shark detecting blood in the water. "I've had more experience than you with these kinds of things. I know what I'm doing here. Do you?" she said. "You're here to learn from me. I am your superior. You will do as I say and keep quiet, you understand? Or I could just have you sent back to the home office."

Tom reluctantly nodded, jaw tensing. He watched as she pressed the button again and Zara whimpered again. Zara was shaking all over. Please. Please just come to my hand, she begged the blade. Another shock came her way and she burst into tears. Then, two came at once. She screamed. But it wasn't from her mouth. Her vocal chords didn't move. It was a scream from her mind, sending a wave of energy outwards. The sword rattled on the table. Silence fell over the room. Zara reached out her hand as much as the cuffs allowed her. She felt it now, like a thread in the air. It was very faint. The feeling dissipated almost as quickly as it arose. She heard a soft zapping sound and again, current ripped through her in a second. Yelling out loud, she latched onto that sensation of a thread and pulled. Her eyes were partially closed from tiredness but there was no mistaking what she saw. In a swift motion, the blade clamoured away from the table and flew into her palm. She felt it solidly in her hand. Power radiated from its hilt, seducing her into its deadly hold. For once, she felt like her old self again – with that strong grip and a give-em-hell attitude.

There was another zapping sound. Zara shrieked and immediately let go of the blade. It fell noisily onto the floor. Then she remembered again where she was – imprisoned and left weak. The man standing near the door came over and picked up the blade carefully while the other one in the room poised a gun to her forehead. Anything to make sure she didn't get out of control, she supposed.

"Good," Toni finally said through the speakers. "Take the sword away, fellas."

Following her instruction, they removed the archangel blade from the room. Soon enough, her escorts came and unbound her wrists. She staggered a few steps forward and then, everything began to get blurry. As much as she tried to stay on her two feet, her head reeled and she watched helplessly as she fell forwards. The next few moments were unclear. She drifted in and out of consciousness. Things changed around her. There were voices talking in fast sentences, some loud, some soft. She could not focus on what they were saying. A man in a white lab coat. Dr Berg. His words seemed… they seemed… angry. What were they fighting about? Zara wondered. And then it all faded to black.